We're at a crucial point, I think, in our state's history. New York has a real opportunity to break open decades of encrusted, corrupt lethargy; we have a new governor elected on the promise of reform with a crushing mandate, the Senate seems about ready to flip, and most importantly, We The People know things need to change. Someone should tell the old guard, because they are fighting hard to keep Things As They Are. For example, The New York Times has an article about the crusading Albany District Attorney that also lays out the resistance he's encountering from those content with the rot. Closer to home, the old guard seeks to make an example of the special election in SSD-7. The Murdoch Post reports that our sweet and cuddly billionaire mayor, the guy so many of us voted for because he's almost a Democrat, just threw a cool quarter of a million dollars into helping Maureen O'Connell, the anti-choice extremist who aspires to be Joe Bruno's next little helper. Meanwhile, The Albany Project makes note of rumors that the Democratic Speaker of the state Assembly, Sheldon Silver, is supposedly trying to torpedo the election of Craig Johnson by sitting on his hands. This because, they say, of a spat regarding the selection of the next Comptroller, which is a wholly unrelated issue, no doubt. If true, that's treachery of the first order. Meanwhile, major unions are also supporting O'Connell, and also for the unrelated reason that they oppose Eliot Spitzer's Medicare reform plan. There is no reason, if you look at some Democrats – Efrain Gonzalez, Diane Gordon, Clarence Norman – to assume naturally that the Democrats are the party of reform. The voters have placed hope over experience in giving us this mandate. If we waste it, it will be taken away, because the need for reform, the desire for it, won't just disappear because the party hacks and special interests happen not to want to change.